Arc Style Soccer 3D is as simple as a soccer game can get. It has an exhibition mode and a tournament mode for you to play in and only a small number of teams to select from. You are able to create your own team and create your own player, but the amount of customization is very limited and nowhere near satisfying.

One of the first things you will notice about the gameplay is that there are different player types with special abilities. A certain player can have a powerful shot, a strong curve, the ability to have a quick sprint or simply a strong through ball. These features make the gameplay a lot of fun and enjoyable. However, the ease of the game is where this title fails horribly. It is way too easy to score goals and there is very little competition at all. To give an example, I let the first half of a game play out while I wrote this section of the review. I was down 3-0 but came back and won in the second half fairly easily. At least it was a bit more of a challenge and slightly more entertaining. I love the style of an arcade soccer game, especially if done right, but unfortunately with this title it misses out.

It really is unfortunate that they got the difficulty wrong and that it is too easy to score goals in this game. It really is fun to score some of these goals with the power shots or headers, even with creating a nice pass to set up the play. The gameplay can be good, but they needed to add so much more depth and a much higher difficulty level. I must also mention that the team I use is a 1 star team. I’m not sure if that somehow really reflects on the players or the team. It could just mean they are not as fast as the 5 star Arc All Stars team. Plus your teammates can be a little dumb on the back end of the defense when the ball gets cleared back their way. I should also mention that on a couple of occasions I and the computer have scored goals that appear as if the goalies have clearly stopped them. I would say that there is a bit of a glitch with that.

As I completed the 10 game tournaments, I was hoping that in the final I might be provided with a higher difficulty. I wasn’t and I won with ease, and then I found a special round after the final which is a game against the Arc All Stars. As the game started out I had the feeling that it was going to be a tough match up…well, I shut them out 6-0. The only challenge you do get is in a free play exhibition match where you are the worst team and you play against the Arc All Stars on hard difficulty. But how often are you going to want to play that match up? The one cool thing I must say about the Arc All Stars team is that the team members are of course characters from Arc games such as BlazBlue. It was fun to play a game of soccer with those characters on the team.

Visually, the game does provide for some nice 3D effects. It’s a pretty solid looking title. There is a lack of a soundtrack though that makes the game feel rather boring. Another thing to mention, when it comes to the customization, is when you select your colors and team name, you do it all with the use of the circle or D pad and there is no use of the touchscreen at all. It would have been so much easier to navigate through the options had they used the touchscreen.

I can’t recommend this title to anyone as it badly needs more depth and difficulty. I would love to see what they come up with if they did add those two things.

Andrew StevensAndrew Stevens is the Managing Editor of FanBolt for Gaming and Technology. He has over 5 years of experience working within the gaming industry which includes a year at Bethesda Softworks. His unique view of the industry and passion for gaming can be seen within each one of his editorials. Andrew is a big PC gamer and always enjoys tinkering with his latest build. He also can’t get enough speed when it comes to racing games and doesn’t mind navigating through swarms of bullets in any shmup. Rez is the greatest game ever!

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